Esu Gets $190,000 Grant For Computer Projects

September 04, 1985|The Morning Call

A $190,000 grant has been awarded to the Computer Science Department at East Stroudsburg University by the Benjamin Franklin Partnership Program.

The grant will be used for the ongoing study called the Applied Fifth Generation Consortium. The project is a cooperative effort between ESU and local industries to apply emerging technologies to computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing problems.

The Fifth Generation Project is an ambitious 10-year development effort whose goals require the development of new hardware architectures and complex software.

A seed grant of $100,000 was awarded to the Computer Science Department in 1984 for the project. The $190,000 grant is for the expansion of that project.

The seven local industries involved in the study are: Weiler Brush Co., Cresco; Salk Institute, Swiftwater; Instrument Specialities, Delaware Water Gap; Burroughs Corp., Allentown; General Electric Co., East Stroudsburg, and Business Technology Group, Scotrun. Control Automation, a digital vision company in Princeton, N.J., donated equipment for the project. The seven businesses cooperating in the study have tripled their 1984-85 investment in the study. In addition, ESU will more than double the number of faculty and students involved in the project.

Through this grant ESU's strengths in the English language control of robots, applied artificial intelligence and software engineering will be developed in a parallel laboratory/industry effort.

Each of the proposed consortium projects involves a team effort consisting of industrial partner personnel and ESU faculty and students. ESU is contributing the efforts of six of its computer science faculty facilities for lab work and development.

Professor Richard Amori, project director and chairman of the Computer Science Department at ESU, said, "The potential for (the project) to preserve jobs and create new jobs is high. Since resources are so scarce in fifth generation technologies, investment now in the ESU A5G project will help Pennsylvania establish leadership in applying emerging technologies with the subsequent economic benefits of such leadership."

The Benjamin Franklin Partnership was developed in 1983 by Gov. Dick Thornburgh as Pennsylvania's approach to high technology and a means to tap into the nation's new focus on technological innovation.